Written by an international judge, professor and former ambassador with decades of experience in the field, this is an incisive and highly readable book about international law as well as realpolitik in bilateral and multilateral diplomacy in the quest for justice by victims of serious human rights violations amounting to grave crimes of international concern.
Focusing on the plight of the ethnic and religious group of persons called the ‘Rohingya’, normally residing in Myanmar, as the case study, the book elaborates the complex legal technicalities and impediments in international courts and foreign domestic criminal courts exercising ‘universal jurisdiction’ in relation to acts amounting to genocide, crimes against humanity and/or war crimes. It builds on and adds value to existing literature on the international law applicable to the protection of human rights as interpreted by the International Court of Justice as well as that on the international criminal justice meted out by domestic criminal courts, ad hoc international criminal tribunals and the permanent International Criminal Court.
The book will be essential reading for students, researchers and academics in public international law, international criminal law, international human rights law as well as government officials and those working for NGOs and international organizations with mandates in these fields.
Part I: Introduction
1 Narratives about the ‘Rohingya’ and Their Plight
2 The Rohingya Situation and International Reactions
Part II: The International Court of Justice: State Responsibility
3 The Gambia’s Case before the ICJ
4 Proving Violations of the 1948 Genocide Convention
Part III: The International Criminal Court: Individual Criminal Responsibility
5 Introduction to the International Criminal Court
6 Practical Difficulties Faced by the ICC
Part IV: Justice in Foreign Domestic Courts
7 Exercise of Universal Criminal Jurisdiction by Argentina and Other Nation States
8 Sanctions and Redress under Domestic Law for Victims of Serious Human Rights Violations Abroad
Part V: Stock Taking
9 Lessons Learnt and Future Possibilities
Biography
Kriangsak Kittichaisaree is a Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. He has served as Chairperson of the UN International Law Commission’s Working Group on ‘The Obligation to Extradite or Prosecute (aut dedere aut judicare)'; and as Thailand’s Ambassador to Iran, Australia and Russia. He has taught international law at renowned law schools in four continents. His publications include International Criminal Law (2001), Public International Law of Cyberspace (2017); The Obligation to Extradite or Prosecute (2018), and International Human Rights Law and Diplomacy (2020).
"This book provides an extremely comprehensive analysis of available legal tools that have been deployed, including sanctions and their criminal and civil enforcement, which the international justice field often ignores. We need to innovate, use all possible tools in fighting against impunity. Those who want to understand the legal tools that are available in this very difficult situation where accountability has been so impossible in the past really need to buy it, review it and have it on the shelf."
(Stephen Rapp, Senior Visiting Fellow at Oxford's Blavatnik School of Government; former US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues & former Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone).
"There are really a lot of issues that the book has delved into in incredible depth and in a lot of details as the subject deserves, including a synthesis between the two realms of international litigation and prosecution, on the one hand, and universal jurisdiction exercised by domestic courts in different jurisdictions, including in the Global South, on the other hand. This is an area where we need to focus more, and which we currently do not have enough in-depth research on, in order to expand the scope and legal options available to ensure accountability for crimes of international concern."
(Dr Priya Pillai, Asia Justice Coalition).
